Author: potus

The last time President Trump held office, he tried to make deep cuts to foreign aid, but was blocked by Congress. He is finding little resistance from fellow Republicans this time to his move to freeze such funding.During a special counsel’s inquiry in his first term, Mr. Trump expressed a desire to fire the investigator, but White House lawyers stopped him. This term, Mr. Trump has swiftly forced out a slew of federal officials who had oversight roles over his administration.In the final days of his first presidency, Mr. Trump tried to hire a loyalist to help run the F.B.I.,…

Nametags with the IRS logo in a conference room at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) campus in Austin, Texas, US, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency’s plans, and cuts could happen as soon as next week.This comes as the Trump administration intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection.It’s unclear how many…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had a rocky trip to Europe this week.In his debut on the world stage, Mr. Hegseth told NATO and Ukrainian ministers in Brussels on Wednesday that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was “an unrealistic objective” and ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv. A few hours later, President Trump backed him up while announcing a phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to begin peace negotiations.Facing fierce blowback the next day from European allies and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Mr. Hegseth backpedaled, denying that either he or Mr. Trump had sold out…

Students march in Serbia, seeking justice for train station victims and accountability for corruption and nepotism.Tens of thousands of students have descended on the town of Kragujevac in central Serbia, the latest in a series of protests to rock the Balkan country after the deadly collapse of a train station roof last year. Fifteen people were killed were killed on November 1 when a roof collapsed at a train station in the city of Novi Sad, fuelling longstanding anger over corruption and nepotism. Since then, mass demonstrations have grown into Serbia’s largest protest movement in years and represent a threat…

A rooster roams on a farm on January 23, 2023 in Austin, Texas.Brandon Bell | Getty ImagesAs avian flu drives egg prices to record levels and increasingly poses a risk to humans, moves by the White House to cut spending and restrict communications have hobbled public health officials’ response, with the new administration yet to outline a clear strategy on how it plans to stem the spread of the virus.State and local public health officials have gone weeks without regular updates on avian flu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after President Donald Trump froze nearly all external communications from the agency,…

In English, Zelenskyy reiterated his message to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met with earlier Friday in Munich, saying that if the U.S. pulled out of NATO, “that will be the destroying of NATO.”He predicted that without the threat of U.S. military retaliation, Russia would begin occupying parts of Europe, particularly the former Soviet nations. He added that European NATO members don’t have the military capacity to defend themselves without the U.S.“They will begin from those countries … small countries who’ve been in the USSR, in the Soviet Union,” Zelenskyy said. “But Europe will not answer, because they don’t…

A US Postal Service worker outside a Signature Bank branch in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAnchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley wants everyone to know what happened to his crypto company in 2023 during the Biden administration.”Our story is pretty ridiculous,” McCauley told CNBC in an interview after testifying at a Senate hearing, titled, “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America,” earlier this month. “We had a bank that we had a growing relationship with for a number of years, who basically on a dime, decided to…

After the Trump administration said it would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in houses of worship, hundreds of members of a Sikh temple in New York have stopped attending services regularly. Another gurdwara, or temple, in West Sacramento, California, has been fielding a half dozen calls daily from members fearful of immigration raids. And others are concerned that community members will begin to forgo essential services often offered in these sacred spaces. Gurdwara Sahib West Sacramento is among the dozens of religious groups that have sued the Trump administration over the past few weeks after the removal of restrictions that…

Trump’s executive order cutting aid to South Africa stems from his claims of human rights abuses against white farmers. But how accurate are his accusations, and what’s really behind them? Contributors:Herman Wasserman – Journalism professor, Stellenbosch UniversityRedi Tlhabi – Journalist and authorRuth Hall – Political scientistZaid Jilani – Journalist, The American Saga On our radar: As Israeli air attacks take out entire neighbourhoods in the occupied West Bank, hardliners in the Israeli government and media demand the Gaza treatment. Ryan Kohls reports. Fake news, rumours and disinformation in post-Assad Syria Syria’s transition following the fall of Bashar al-Assad is fraught…

President Trump’s second term dizzies many Americans, but I find it oddly familiar — an echo of the time I lived in China as a reporter.Americans sometimes misperceive Trump’s actions as a fire hose of bizarre and disparate moves, a kaleidoscope of craziness. Yet there is a method to it, and I’ve seen parallels in authoritarian countries I’ve covered around the world over the past four decades.It’s not that I offer a unified theory of Trumpism, but there is a coherence there that requires a coherent response. Strongmen seek power — political power but also other currencies, including wealth and…